The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus including a developing device for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on a photoconductor with toner and a toner container for storing toner and supplying the toner to the developing device, and the toner container.
There is known an image forming apparatus such as a printer in which a developing device is arranged around a photosensitive drum and an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum is developed with toner by this developing device. A toner container is removably assembled with the developing device, and toner is supplied from the toner container to the developing device as the toner decreases in amount.
As a developing device including a toner container of this type, the developing device disclosed in this prior art includes a cylindrical toner container mounting portion extending in parallel to an axial direction of a developing roller, and a toner container containing toner to be supplied is removably mounted to this toner container mounting portion. In mounting the toner container, a user rotates the toner container in a specific direction after inserting the toner container into the toner container mounting portion from one end of the toner container mounting portion. By this rotation, a toner supply opening of the developing device and a toner discharge opening of the toner container are aligned, and a shutter member closing the toner supply opening moves in a circumferential direction along the inner circumferential surface of the toner container mounting portion. As a result, the toner can be supplied from the toner container to the developing device.
Note that, with many of conventional image forming apparatuses, directions parallel to axial directions of a photosensitive drum and a developing roller are forward and backward directions and a user performs various operations while standing in front of the apparatus.
In recent years, directions perpendicular to an axial direction of a developing roller have been forward and backward directions of an apparatus in some of image forming apparatuses such as small-size printers. In the image forming apparatus of this type, a structure for assembling a toner container with a developing device from the front side of the apparatus (in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the developing roller) is thought in terms of easier mounting and removal of the toner container.
A conventional structure including a toner container and the like cannot be directly applied to an image forming apparatus of this type. Particularly, it is difficult to open and close a shutter member of a developing device by rotating a toner container once housed in the apparatus from the outside of the apparatus. Accordingly, there is a need for another structure for opening and closing the shutter member as the toner container is mounted and removed.
The present disclosure was developed in view of the above situation and relates to an image forming apparatus in which a toner container is mounted to and removed from a developing device along a direction perpendicular to an axial direction of a developing roller and an object thereof is to enable a shutter member of the developing device to be appropriately opened and closed as the toner container is mounted to and removed from the developing device.